Beneath the Tip of the Iceberg: Meditation & the Unconscious Mind

Awareness of the Reality Within

Swami Rama | April 20, 2017

The first thing meditation does is to bring up your hidden suppressions to the surface level—to the conscious mind. In the beginning stages, some may find that this is a little difficult to handle and give up. They never make it to the next step. In the next stage, this growing awareness makes you aware that you have some good potential as well as some disturbing potential. Keep going. In the third stage, you’ll find that your mind is slowly coming under your control. And in the next step, you’ll find that there is a mental boundary which you are afraid to cross because you think you may lose something, some part of yourself.

Why does this happen? Because you are trying to tap into the unknown part of yourself and bring it to the known being. When a large part of the iceberg that is floating in the ocean of life starts coming up to the surface, it disturbs you. You cannot handle it without proper preparation. Before now, you have only known the tip that is visible above the water’s surface. You have not known the totality of yourself. This is true in all phases, with all aspects of energy.

If you know how to guide your mind in a solid way, it becomes helpful for you.

How you progress through each of these stages depends on your attention. Say you are paying attention to a certain aspect of energy—for example, sexual energy. If you think constantly of sex, you will become a sex maniac. But if you have control, you can think of it when it is needed and avoid it completely when it is not needed, so that it is not a source of distraction to you. Sexual energy can even be converted into higher energy, to claim later on. It is all mind. If mind is not there, then the body does not function. So if you know how to guide your mind in a solid way, it becomes helpful for you.

When you first start getting acquainted with the unknown part of yourself, you will notice a strange thing happening. The language, the music of the inner world, is different, you see, and so the features which you find within you are also different. You do not know the color of your mind, nor its shape. If your own mind came before you, you might be terrified. If you could see your mind when you are angry, I assure you it is more terrifying than any devil! But when you see your mind coming before you in a gentle, kind, and loving form, you will find an angel within yourself. All the qualities that you find in animals, in human beings, in the highest beings or devas, all these are within you. It all depends upon which part of your mind, which quality you are awakening.

Slowly, you begin to understand the use of meditation and then you realize you are using this technique for spiritual upliftment, unfoldment, and enlightenment. Once you become enlightened, you have everything. Then you truly understand that even if you possess all the things of the world, you do not have happiness. If you do not have love for reality, then all other things, though obtainable, will only create disturbances for you. But if you have the one thing called love for reality, all things are given to you.

About the Author

Swami Rama

One of the greatest adepts, teachers, writers, and humanitarians of the 20th century, Swami Rama (1925–1996) is the founder of the Himalayan Institute. Born in northern India, he was raised from early childhood by the Himalayan sage, Bengali Baba. Under the guidance of his master, he traveled from monastery to monastery and studied with a variety of Himalayan saints and sages, including his grandmaster, who was living in a remote region of Tibet.
In addition to this intense spiritual training, Swami Rama received higher education in both India and Europe. From 1949 to 1952, he held the prestigious position of Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham in South India. Thereafter, he returned to his master to receive further training at his cave monastery, and finally, in 1969, came to the United States, where he founded the Himalayan Institute.
His best-known work, Living with the Himalayan Masters, reveals the many facets of this singular adept and demonstrates his embodiment of the living tradition of the East.

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